John majors government came into office after the downfall of Margret Thatcher, which ultimately created divisions within the party. Not only did the party suffer from the internal conflict but also faced the problems of the recession after the ‘Lawson boom’. In order to stabilise the economy he joined the ERM getting a good deal but ultimately resulting in ‘black Wednesday’ causing Major to raise interest rates to 15%. This was political suicide and he soon lost the support of the press we had once relied so much on to get re-elected in 1992. The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess.
The failure of foreign policy in the years 1514-1525 can be attributed to many things. The combination of Henry's isolation from European affairs and the fact that his attempts to raise tax were ultimately unpopular failures, meant that he had no way to impose himself upon Europe. Even when he did manage to scrape together the finances needed for a strong foreign policy his reliance on his allies led to disaster. As soon as Henry took the throne in 1509, it was obvious that he was a king that wanted to fight a war. However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country.
The number of people unemployed rose by five million from the start of the great depression1929 to when Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Some people were still in works but they were paid low wages and worked short time works. The number of unemployment left many people hungry as they had no work so they couldn’t get the money to buy food. Also many people became homeless. The great depression gave huge boost to the extremist parties as the German people started to blame the government to the depression and therefore lost confidence in them.
To what extent did James Callaghan lose the 1979 election Due to the Winter of Discontent? Callaghan faced what could arguably have been the toughest of times out of any British Prime Minister after 1945. There are many contributing factors to explain why Callahan lost the election in 1979 however the main factor I believe to be his own leadership at poor judgments, in particular his decision to not call a general election in 1979. Callaghan's own leadership and poor judgments are undoubtedly the main factor for why he lost the election in 1979, although Callaghan was faced with some big problems the majority of the time his decisions did make matters worse for Britain. The biggest issue Callaghan faced was the International Monetary Fund Crisis in 1976.
The first signs of disruption that led to the general strike was the fact that other countries such as Poland were becoming a more predominant exporter of coal, and the only way to stop Britain’s coal industry was to higher the price of coal, extend miners working hours and reduce pay. Obviously not favoured by the miners. Many British mines were old and needed modernisation, mine owners didn’t want to do this and there was a feeling of the miners wanting the mines to be nationalised. To make matters worse, the government decided to put Britain back on the gold standard, the pre-1914 exchange rate. British coal exports were more costly, this again led to mine owners wanting wage cuts and longer working hours, however these were rejected, this lead to multiple threats of a lockout, were the miners wouldn’t get paid al all as the were not allowed to work.
Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and American truly entered what is called the Great Depression. Before Black Tuesday, the economy had been stagnant for months prior, and the effects of the market crash were compounded due to the use of margin, and the general lack of market regulations at that time. The use of margin means people had borrowed funds (Doc K). This led to a spiral of falling prices. With significantly reduced wealth, spending decline, banks failed and on top of this drought conditions contributed to a lack of good crops.
This shows that the ordinary people didn’t gain anything from the unrest in 1973/4 as it caused major inconveniences in the home highlighting that it was an issue. However it can be argued that the miners- NUM did gain from the industrial unrest of 1973/4. This is because the government backed down to the miners and they gained a 21% wage increase, which was nearly three times the amount of what the employers had originally offered. The fact that a key reason to the strikes was that they wanted a pay increase shows that the NUM was successful in what they set out for which is highlighted by the fact that they then went to strike again. This largely shows that the NUM largely had something to gain from the industrial unrest as they were essentially successful in what they set out for and proved to be more powerful than even the government.
The British people therefore began to question whether or not the war had all been worth it. Furthermore, the fact that pro-Boer meetings were highly attended, is evidence of the fact that Imperialism lost prestige because of the war. In other words, the British people found the war morally wrong. At the pro-Boer meeting in Birmingham in 1901, leaded by the Liberal Lloyd George, Lloyd George claimed that it was not worth spending a huge amount of money and soldiers to
6) Hoovervilles were named after Herbert Hoover because he was the president at the time of the great depression. The American people felt like he was to blame for the terrible economy because he raised taxes when he promised that he wouldn't as well as creating the Smoot Hawley tariff which eventually cut America off from foreign trade, tightening the grasp that the depression already had on the U.S. The negative view that the American people had of Hoover was not fair because he put forth more effort than any other president before him to pull America out of a
KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS. 1. What was the significance of the Great Depression of the 1930’s? The prolonged period of high unemployment and recessions of the 1930’s was thought not to be possible by Neo-classical economists and that a self correcting and self regulating economy would bring the labour market back into equilibrium at full employment due to wage and price flexibility. This did not happen.